Room-temperature growth of silicon oxide nanofilms: new opportunities for plastic electronics

A new generation of plastic transistors consisting primarily of light and flexible organic materials requires new fabrication methods which combine low-temperature, solution-phase processing with precise control in the nanometer range over the component dimensions. Ultrathin silicon oxide films, which serve as gate dielectric layers in these transistors, were recently grown at room temperature from polymer precursor films by a novel layer-by-layer deposition/oxidation process.